Brexit transition will be agreed by year end, says Swinburne

MEP is the latest to push for an agreement to give firms more time to put in place contingency plans

By

Lucy McNulty

October 13, 2017 Updated: October 14, 2017 9:59 a.m. GMT

UK and European negotiators are expected to reach an agreement on transitioning into Brexit by December, according to a prominent MEP.

Kay Swinburne, the vice chair of the European Parliament's influential committee on economic and monetary affairs, said her fellow European politicians "are only just starting to realise" that the value of a transitional arrangement would diminish "very rapidly" if it was not agreed before 2018, she told those attending a Columbia Threadneedle conference in Brussels.